ImaGeo

Here's what the brutal heat wave now setting up across a large part of the U.S. looks like — in four simple graphics

I created the animation above to show how the heat wave coming to a large portion of the United States is forecast to evolve between now and Tuesday.

Check out the spreading stain of deep red in the graphical forecast maps that make up the animation. The stain shows temperatures soaring under a massive heat dome forecast to build over Southern California, Arizona, other parts of the Southwest, and beyond.

Not shown in the animation is the stifling heat and humidity already afflic …

The Crux

Where Are All the Prehistoric Women and Children?

This post originally appeared in the online anthropology magazine SAPIENS. Follow @SAPIENS_org on Twitter to discover more of their work.

Stone tools, like Acheulean hand axes, remain well-preserved for eons because they are stones first, tools second. Fired ceramics remain well-preserved for millennia because they are, in essence, human-made stone. Metal tools may, in some rare instances, endure for millennia, but their material hardness belies chemical fragility; most are not stable  …

D-brief

A Golden Marsupial Mole Makes a Rare, Above-ground Appearance

Take a good look, because once this squirming lump of golden fur dives back into the ground, you probably won’t see it again for a long time.

The adorable creature is a northern marsupial mole, Notoryctes caurinus, known more commonly by its aboriginal name, karrkaratul. It was found by rangers affiliated with the Tjamu Tjamu Aboriginal Corporation during an expedition to the outback last week, after it scurried across the road in front of their vehicle. The crew stopped for a quick phot …

Neuroskeptic

Reflections On Voodoo Neuroscience

Seven years ago, neuroscientists Ed Vul and colleagues made waves with their paper on ‘voodoo correlations’ in social neuroscience. Now, in a new paper, historian of medicine Cornelius Borck looks back on the voodoo correlations debate and asks whether neuroscience might be likened to voodoo in another sense.

Borck argues that neuroscience has something in common with animism, the religious belief that spirits inhabit various objects. In particular, he says, fMRI studies can be likened to …

The Crux

Gene Therapy in 'Orphan Black' Is Pretty Spot-on

Gene therapy is all the rage among researchers in several fields of medicine, and the BBC America sci-fi TV hit Orphan Black has made sure to get its own piece of the action.

As with reproductive cloning and other biotech issues hashed out over the last four years, characters in the “The Black” are making references to gene therapy with a twist that’s far-fetched, but grounded in state-of-the-art science and real-life emerging possibilities.

With the season 4 finale set to air to …

Seriously, Science?

How to grow baby chicks using plastic wrap instead of an eggshell.

What’s cooler than watching a chick hatch out of an egg? Watching the embryo develop under clear plastic, of course! These Japanese scientists report a method to do just that, using plastic wrap in place of an eggshell (and some other equipment to make sure conditions were just right for hatching). Check out the video below for a great explanation… and hilarious reaction shots!

A Novel Shell-less Culture System for Chick Embryos Using a Plastic Film as Culture Vessels

“The  …

D-brief

Researchers Add New Variables to the Happiness Equation

In 2014, Discover reported on an equation that purported to lay out key variables that determine how happy we are. It said, in a nutshell, lower your expectations if you want to be happier.

But the pursuit of happiness is far more complicated than simply expecting nothing, so it’s no surprise that the “happiness equation” has since grown. Now, on top of lowering your expectations, you might want to avoid scrolling through your Facebook newsfeed comparing yourself to other smiling faces. …

ImaGeo

Going, going, GONE — California's snowpack has vanished

A premature melt-out has replenished reservoirs, but with a drying La Niña probably coming, California’s water woes are far from over

After El Niño failed to deliver salvation from California’s epic drought, it has now come to this:

Statewide, snowpack is down to just 6 percent of normal for this time of year.

For all intent and purposes, this vital source of water for tens of millions of Californians, and one of the world’s most productive agricultural economies, has vanished prema …

D-brief

LIGO’s Second Gravitational Wave Detection Refines Black Hole Theories

Chad Hanna was enjoying a quiet Christmas night with family in rural western Pennsylvania when he got the text message. He sprang for his phone, surprising his in-laws. Then he grabbed his laptop and flew up the stairs to an empty bedroom.

The cosmos had quietly gifted scientists with a second gravitational wave, dubbed GW151226, from two black holes that collided 1.4 billion light-years away. The signal from those black holes — one 14 solar masses and the other eight — showed the fin …

D-brief

Coffee Won't Give You Cancer, But Hot Drinks Might

Drinking coffee isn’t going to give you cancer, but they way you drink it might.

Those are the findings of 23 scientists from 10 countries who reviewed roughly 1,000 studies looking at the long-debated link between drinking coffee and getting certain types of cancer. They found no basis for the claims that your daily cuppa will give you cancer — if anything, it might protect against tumors — but they did find a potential link between extremely hot beverages and certain types of can …